Your guide to Cleland’s exclusive bird tour

In the ear­ly part of the day, Cle­land Wildlife Park comes alive with the fresh Ade­laide Hills air and the tunes of its many bird species.

Did you know you can expe­ri­ence this ear­ly morn­ing mag­ic for your­self? As part of Cleland’s Break­fast with the Birds morn­ing tour, you can get up-close with the beau­ti­ful native birds that call the park home, feed them brekkie, and then indulge in your own.

The small group tour starts at about 8am, well before the park usu­al­ly opens at 9.30 am, and is a great way of explor­ing Cleland’s mallee, for­est and swamp aviaries.

Tours are led by an expert bird keep­er who cre­ates a deli­cious break­fast for the birds. You’ll feel like a wildlife ranger for the morn­ing as you feed the birds seed, fruit, insects, veg­eta­bles and nec­tar extract.

You will be enthralled with the hun­dreds of native birds fly­ing and chirp­ing around you. Some might even land on you – mak­ing for some fab­u­lous self­ies – so have your cam­era ready!

To top off your relax­ing morn­ing get­ting to know South Australia’s birds, you’ll have a human break­fast wait­ing for you to enjoy at Cleland’s café. Then the park is yours to explore for the rest of the day.

Won­der­ing which bird species you might encounter? Here are five gor­geous birds that you’ll get up-close with on the tour:

1. Swift parrot

These colour­ful migra­to­ry par­rots are crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered. They’re noisy and active birds that will keep you enter­tained with their antics.

2. Princess parrot

Cle­land has three res­i­dent princess par­rots, and their name cer­tain­ly says it all – they are absolute­ly princess­es in beau­ty and personality.

Did you know? The princess par­rot was named after Princess Alexan­dra of Den­mark, who lat­er mar­ried the Prince of Wales Edward VII and even­tu­al­ly became the Queen of England.

3. Tawny frog­mouth

What a face! These guys enjoy a mouse or two for break­fast. They are also mas­ters of tree cam­ou­flage and are close­ly relat­ed to night­jars – not owls.

4. Regent honeyeater

The strik­ing regent hon­eyeater is crit­i­cal­ly endan­gered in south east­ern Aus­tralia. On the tour you’ll learn about how Cle­land is active­ly involved in the con­ser­va­tion of this species.

5. Rain­bow lorikeet

Def­i­nite­ly not shy birds. These loud and colour­ful birds will beg you for their morn­ing feed of nectar. 

The Break­fast with the Birds tour costs $95.50, with dis­counts for mem­bers. Each tour goes for about 90 min­utes and is run dur­ing the warmer months, between Octo­ber and April. Book­ings are a must, vis­it the Cle­land web­site to learn more.

Want to learn more about South Australia’s birds? Read our sto­ries about tiny birds, par­rots, birds of prey, and bird nests.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Novem­ber 2018.